PM for national strategy to meet internal security challenges

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has asserted that the centre's offer to initiate a dialogue with militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir would by no means undermine its determination to fight terrorism.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has asserted that the centre's offer to initiate a dialogue with militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir would by no means undermine its determination to fight terrorism. The PM advocated the formulation of a national strategy to meet challenges to internal security.
“Our initiative for a dialogue with anybody who is willing to sit across the table and eschew violence in J&K would by no means undermine our determination to fight terrorism”, Vajpayee told the first-ever conference of chief ministers on internal security in New Delhi. On the contrary, we will act with added resolve particularly in our effort to eliminate cross-border terrorism. There shall be no let up in our determined fight against those who seek to harm India's unity and integrity.
Charging Pakistan with adopting cross-border terrorism as an instrument of state policy to further its hostility towards India, Vajpayee said challenges to internal security should no
longer be seen as state-specific problem, but from a national perspective.

The changed nature, magnitude and dimension of the threat to our internal security necessitates that both the centre and the states pool their resources to formulate a national strategy and adopt effective tactics.
Responding to a plea by home minister L K Advani, the Prime Minister announced raising allocation of funds for modernisation of police forces from Rs 200 crore in the last financial year to Rs 1,000 crore annually.